Countdown to 2014 World Cup in Brazil: Day 69

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The Arena da Amazonia stadium in Manaus will host four World Cup matches, including the U.S. game against Portugal.CreditReuters

By Jack Bell

April 4, 2014

The 2014 World Cup begins on June 12, when Brazil plays Croatia in the opening match. Reporters and editors for The Times will count down to the start of the tournament each day with a short capsule of news and interesting tidbits.

The Arena da Amazonia in Manaus hosted its second major event Thursday night, a Brazilian Cup match. And although officials said they were pleased, in general, there remain concerns ahead of the first World Cup game in the stadium — the June 14 match between England and Italy.

With the world watching keenly as Brazil moves toward the completion of the 14 stadiums, often in fits and starts and not without several fatal accidents, the game in Manaus between Vasco da Gama and Resende, a 0-0 draw, attracted more than 40,000 fans.

Players for the two clubs, which are based in Rio de Janeiro, lined up for the national anthem before the game, but the sound system refused to cooperate and there was silence, other than the noise coming from the stands. After the game, the nearly 600 stewards mightily tried to keep fans off the field, but were unsuccessful.

“This was the first official test event; we didn’t expect everything to be perfect,” Tiago Paes, an official of the tournament’s organizing committee, told The Associated Press. “In general, we were very satisfied with the results in Manaus.”

A game was played in the stadium last month, but attendance was limited to 20,000 in the 44,000-seat stadium for security reasons and because the building was not finished.

“We will analyze the images of the invasion to find out what went wrong and who was not paying attention at the time,” Paes said. “This will not happen in World Cup matches.”

Over all at the stadium, three construction workers have died. FIFA had required that all World Cup venues be completed by the end of 2013, but the Manaus stadium was one of six with work still to be done. Work at a stadium in São Paulo was halted earlier this week when a construction worker was killed in another accident.